(Originally posted July 16, 2009)
When young adults want to meet with me one of their biggest frustrations is that they want to know God’s will for their lives. Which ministry can produce the biggest fruit and satisfaction for me? Who am I going to marry? What job should I take? Part of the reason for this frustration is because they are somewhat dissatisfied with their current season of life and want to move to the next season of life where they are flowing in their gifting, they’re in a relationship with a significant other, and they’re in their dream job.
But there is a reason that God allows you to go through this season and not the one you dream of. Say your life is made up of 1,000 steps. A person in his 20’s is at step 200 but he wants to be at step 400. What he misses are all the life lessons God has in between steps 200 to 400. At step 400 you need a certain amount of patience, integrity, honesty, perseverance, and self-control. But you don’t have that yet so over time God will develop those character traits into you.
You see, God won’t move you to the next season of your life until you pass this season of your life. During this season there are certain things the Lord is teaching you. So let me ask you a question – what is the Lord teaching you today? You must learn and pass these lessons so that you can move forward. If you don’t learn these lessons, the Lord will have to take the time and re-teach you these things until you get it. Therefore learn this season’s life lessons well.
During college I worked in a law firm and the secretary taught me strong administrative skills. That helped me when I got involved in youth ministry and church administration. When I was involved in youth ministry I learned to how put together messages. That helped me when I got involved with teaching Bible seminars. When I was a Bible seminar instructor I learned how to take complex teachings of the Bible and make them simple. That helped me when I became a teacher for Pacific Rim Christian College teaching the Old and New Testament Survey classes.
If the Lord had shown me back in my college years that I would one day become an instructor at a Bible college, my mind would have been focused on how to get to that point. And I would have missed all the lessons to be learned along the way. It was as if the Lord was saying that in order to be an instructor at a Bible college one day I need to have a certain amount of administrative skills, know how to put together a message, and know how to make the complex simple. Therefore, I didn’t need to know the big picture, I just needed to know the next step.
So steward this season well and learn the lessons God is teaching you right now. You can’t move forward until you pass this season’s lessons.
Questions to think about:
Be honest…are you currently dissatisfied with the season you’re in and want to move on to the next season?
When you are dissatisfied, are you seeing things from your point of view or God’s point of view?
What lessons do you believe the Lord wants you to learn from this season of life?
© Gary Lau 2012
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